A strong second half that finally proved what the Seahawks felt he could do all along has earned Rashaad Penny a big contract with the team to stay for the 2022 season.
A source confirmed to The Seattle Times that Seattle has agreed to terms with Penny on a one-year deal worth $5.75 million with incentives that could take it to $6.5 million.
Penny, the team’s first-round pick in 2018 out of San Diego State, had a redemptive 2021 season after battling injuries the previous two years. He finished with 749 yards on 116 carries. His 6.29 yards per carry led the NFL and is the best in team history for a running back and behind only Russell Wilson’s 7.2 in 2014.
And his 5.6 yards per carry is the best in team history for a career.
Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reported that Penny “turned down more money elsewhere” to stay with the Seahawks.
Penny indicated late last season that he hoped to stay with the Seahawks and felt a sense of loyalty to the team for hanging with him through the injuries that plagued his 2019-20 seasons when he played just 13 games after suffering an ACL injury and then several other injuries related to it on his road to recovery.
“I’d love to be back home,” Penny said after the final game of the season against Arizona. “This is home to me. I would love to be back.”
Now he will be for at least one more year at the age of 26 and on a contract that will pay him more than he would have made if the team had exercised a fifth-year option last spring, which could have paid him $4.523 million.
In the wake of Penny’s injuries, no one questioned it when Seattle turned down that option, with Penny having gained just 404 yards on 76 carries the previous two seasons.
And through the first half of the 2021 season, it was hard to tell if Penny had much of a future with the Seahawks as he played in just four of the first 11 games after suffering a calf injury in the first game of the year against the Colts.
But finally healthy over the final six games, he showed the potential the team always felt he had in taking him 27th overall four years earlier, rushing for 130 or more yards in three straight games at one stretch as the Seahawks finished with a 5.02 average per carry for the season, second in team history.
“You saw Rashaad Penny just take off this last month of the season and just be incredibly effective,” coach Pete Carroll said. “I’m so fired up that they get to know that. Rush for a couple hundred yards in back-to-back games. When does that happen in our league? That doesn’t happen.”
Penny said late in the season he was glad he finally got to reward Seattle’s faith for sticking with him and prove to the NFL what he could do.
“This journey for me is far from over,” Penny said in December. “I knew what I could do. I mean, again, it’s just I was never on the field. It’s unfortunate, but I’m thankful for whatever I’ve been doing these last few weeks. I couldn’t have done it without these guys giving me an opportunity to show what I can do and just never giving up on me.”
A strong running game may be more important — and more emphasized — than ever now that the team has traded Wilson and for now has only Drew Lock and Jacob Eason on its roster at quarterback (with the expectation that Geno Smith will also soon be re-signed).
“We are going to win with defense, we are going to win with how we play on special teams, we are going to run the football to help the whole thing fit together,” Carroll said in a news conference last week announcing the Wilson trade. “That’s never changed, it’s never been the philosophy that we’ve needed to alter other than continue to grow and make it dynamic and present and current. That’s what we are looking for.”
Seattle also has Chris Carson under contract for the 2022 season, but his availability remains in doubt as he recovers from neck surgery in December. At the combine earlier this month, Carroll said the hope is Carson will be back but did not say he definitely will be.
“I don’t have any reason to doubt it right now,” Carroll said. “He’s really positive about it and everything went well and he should be progressing the way the way the docs count on. So we’ll have to see what happens.”
Carson has a $3.1 million dead cap hit for 2022, but the team would save $3 million against the cap if he were released.
Seattle also has Travis Homer, DeeJay Dallas Josh Johnson and Darwin Thompson — a former member of the Chiefs and Buccaneers who has played in 26 NFL games and was signed as a free agent in February — under contract at the running back spot for 2022 along with Carson and Penny while Alex Collins remains a free agent.
Penny becomes the fifth Seahawk who was an unrestricted free agent to stay with the team since the free agent signing period began last week, the others being safety Quandre Diggs, defensive tackle Al Woods, cornerback Sidney Jones and tight end Will Dissly.
